Foam mat

ABSTRACT

A two layer foam mat is described. The raw materials for each layer are separately mixed and heated in different batches, and separately pressed through heated rollers to form a plurality of sheets. One or more sheets from each batch are stacked together in a press and heated above a foaming temperature to permit the stacked sheets to foam and expand. The press restricts the sheets from vertical expansion while allowing horizontal expansion. Once the sheets are foamed, a series of alternating teeth and receiving slots can be cut around the boundary of the mat to form an interlocking peripheral wall. The layers preferably have the same chemical composition after foaming, even though the layers are formed from different batches and may have different colors and/or textures.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/642,078, filed Jul. 5, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/052,788, filed Feb. 24, 2016, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/630,232, filed Feb.24, 2015, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 9,289,085, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/105,182, filed Apr. 13, 2005, whichis a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.29/203,027, filed Apr. 8, 2004, now issued U.S. Pat. No. D532,238, allof which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to floor matting. More specifically,the present invention is directed to resilient floor matting which canbe used in playroom environments, athletic environments such as forgymnastics or tumbling, and for environments where cushioning from thehard undersurface is desirable, such as a studio, or workplace wherepeople are standing for prolonged periods. Artists, draftsmen, woodworkers, printers, surgeons, dentists, retail sales people, and thelike, are subject to standing on hard surfaces for prolonged periods.

BACKGROUND

Resilient floor matting has been used extensively for thousands ofyears. Fiber matting was first used, then came carpeting. Between the1900's and 1960's, canvas mats filled with batting were commonly usedfor gymnastics and tumbling. In the last two centuries, floor matting ofcork has been extensively used to absorb the pounding forces of the feeton hard surfaces. In the last 30 years mats prepared from polymeric foamhas become common. For purposes of convenience, such as retail sale,packaging, transportation, and the like, the mats are sold in roll form,such a 4′×8′ sheets, or as tiles measuring anywhere from 6″×6″ up to3′×4′. Some floor matting tiles, especially large dimension tiles, aremerely laid down with adjacent tiles butting up against one another. Forsmaller tiles, there is an interlocking arrangement. Some tiles have aperiphery of interlocking teeth which dovetail with the peripheral teethof adjoining tiles. Prior art tiles are one color and/or have a texturedsurface on one side only. The bottom surface is normally smooth andflat, and the top surface is smooth and flat or textured, depending uponthe taste of the user. The prior art has attempted to make matting withone color on one side and another color on the other side, but withoutsuccess. Delamination of two or more mat layers can be a problemespecially with use or when there are temperature changes, such as fromambient temperature to below freezing or from ambient temperature to anelevated temperature. In addition, delamination can occur when the matsare subject to physical forces, such as with tumbling, or gymnastics, orthe dropping of articles, such as weights, on the matting. In addition,running and stopping or quick turns on matting, applies shear forces toeach of the layers which can lead to delamination of the layers.

With use, the working surface or top surface of the floor matting canbecome disfigured with stains from dirt, paint, ink, and the like,physically disfigured can cause cuts, abrasions, and indentions in thefloor matting. The floor matting can be reversed but this can beunsatisfactory if the bottom surface of the matting is smooth and thetop surface of the matting is textured, or vice versa. When it isreversed, the textured side becomes the base surface and the originalbase surface becomes the top working surface. The new working surfacewill not be textured.

Resilient matting, such as foam elastomeric matting, is normallyanywhere from ⅜″ to ¾″ in thickness and around 2′×2′ square. To cover aroom 10′×10′, 25 mat tiles are normally required.

Solid resilient matting can be quite heavy and voluminous when stacked.Polymeric foam elastomeric resilient matting is relatively light, but itis also voluminous when stacked. For example, matting (2′×2′×½″) for12′×12′ coverage when stacked forms a cube 2′×2′×1½′. For retail sales,matting can take up a great deal of retail space especially when severaltextures and several colors are being offered. For example, if fourcolors are available and four textures are available, the retail outlethas to carry sixteen varieties of floor matting. The number of varietiescould be cut in half by having both surfaces of the matting textured indifferent textures and/or different colors. Thus, if four colors areoffered in four textures for polymeric foam matting, the matting on onesurface having one color and one texture and the other surface havinganother color and another texture, only eight varieties of matting wouldbe required at the retail outlet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The floor matting of the present invention comprises a body having firstand second layers, each layer having an outer surface and an innersurface, the inner surfaces of the first and second layers are boundtogether to form an inner boundary, the outer surfaces constituting afirst and second surfaces of the body, the first and second surfacesbeing generally parallel to one another but not generally parallel tothe boundary; the first and second surfaces having different surfacetextures or design and/or different colors, the body bounded by aninterlocking peripheral wall.

The body is a planar structure and from a plan view, it can have arectangular shape, triangular shape, square shape or hexagonal shape.The interlocking peripheral wall has a series of teeth and receivingslots in alternating positions. The teeth dovetail with the receivingslots of adjacent floor mats to lock the floor mats together.

The thickness of the body is generally constant over its width andlength. This is important because it permits a plurality of floor matsto be joined together to form a continuous planar surface. Although thethickness of the body is generally constant, the thickness of the firstand second layers is preferably not constant. The reason for this isthat the boundary between the first layer and the second layer isundulating. If one layer was peeled away to show the boundary whichfollows the inner surface of the remaining layer, the topography of theboundary would look similar to rolling hills and valleys.

The undulating nonplanar boundary resists delamination of the twolayers. By having an undulating boundary between the two layers, shearforces and compressive forces applied to one layer are partiallyconverted to compressive forces and tension forces. For example, if onelayer is placed in shear with respect to the other layer with anundulating boundary, in certain areas of the undulating boundary shearforces are going to be partially converted to compressive forces, and inother areas, the shear forces are going to be converted into tensionforces. This helps to minimize delamination between the two layers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the floor mat of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows an embossed design on the top surface of the floor mat ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 2a shows an alternative embodiment of an embossed design on the topsurface of the floor mat of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2b is another embodiment of a design embossed in the top surface ofthe floor mat of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the floor mat of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows another design embossed in the surface of the floor mat ofFIG. 3;

FIG. 5 shows a side view of the floor mat of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is an enlargement of the side view of FIG. 5 in the encircledarea labeled FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, the floor mat 10 is a large, planar, flat,body 12 which has a first surface 16A and a second opposing parallelsurface 16B. The two surfaces 16A and 16B are parallel to one another.The periphery of the floor mat is bounded by an interlocking perimeter26, which comprises a series of teeth 28A and receiving slots 30A inalternating positions. Interlocking perimeter 26 also comprises fourcorners each having a smaller tooth 28B and a smaller receiving slot30B. The surface 16A has a texture or three dimensional design 18′ andthe second surface 16B has a texture or three dimensional design 18″,the two textures or designs can be the same or different. For purposesof this invention, texture means a three dimensional texture or designembossed in or embossed out of the mat surface. One or both surfaces 16Aand 16B can also be smooth. The body is made up of two layers 14A and14B (see FIG. 6). The two layers are bound together either by heatwelding and/or an adhesive. Preferably, the two layers have the samechemical composition so that the two layers have the same coefficient ofthermal expansion and the same elastomeric properties so that the twolayers work together and respond similarly when subject to temperaturechanges and forces. The two layers have an outer surface 16A and 16B,respectively, and two inner surfaces 17A and 17B which preferably forman undulating boundary 20 between the two layers. Preferably, the innersurfaces 17A and 17B are not parallel to the first and second surfaces.Rather, the two inner surfaces 17A and 17B in the preferred embodimentmeet to form undulating boundary 20 which has a topography of rollinghills and vales. The two outer surfaces 16A and 16B are parallel, orgenerally parallel. In the preferred embodiment, the inner surfaces 17Aand 17B are generally not parallel to either of the outer surfaces.Thus, the thickness 22 of the body is generally constant across theentire length and width of the body. In contrast, in the preferredembodiment, the thicknesses of the first layer and second layer vary asthe boundary undulates. Thus, the thickness of the first and secondlayers vary from point to point. The thickness 24A of the first layer14A at a given point, together with the thickness 24B of the secondlayer at the same point are equivalent to the thickness 22 of the body.Thus, thickness 24C of the first layer 14A, at a second point, is lessthan the thickness 24A at the first point and the thickness 24D of thesecond layer 14B at the second point is greater than the thickness 24Bof the second layer at the first point. The undulating boundary betweenthe first layer and the second layer resists delamination of the twolayers making the mats more robust as explained supra. However, the twolayers 14A and 14B can be flat planar layers of the same or differentthickness, each having a generally uniform thickness.

As described above, the texture of the first surface 16A can bedifferent than the texture of the second surface 16B (see FIGS. 2, 2 a,2 b, and 4 showing textures 18A, 18B, 18C and 18D, respectively).Similarly, the color of the first layer and the first surface 16A can bedifferent than the color of the second layer 14B. Thus, the present matsgive the purchaser the opportunity to have a selection of colors and/ora selection of textures. In addition, it permits the purchaser to form acheckerboard pattern or other pattern, assuming enough tiles areutilized, utilizing the different textures and/or colors of the mattiles.

Preferably, the mats are made from resilient polymeric materials, suchas natural or synthetic rubber, and most preferably from foamelastomeric material, such as polyethylene foam, polyurethane foam,EVA-PE foam (ethylene vinyl acetate-polyethylene foam elastomer), andEVA foam (ethylene vinyl acetate foam).

Preferably, the elastomeric mats are made from a combination of virginpolymer and recycle polymer, such as virgin EVA polymer and a mix ofvirgin and recycle PE (polyethylene) polymer. The blend of EVA andvirgin and recycle PE are compounded together and heated to atemperature below the polymer foaming temperature and pressed into thinsheets through rollers of uniform thickness within uniform temperaturesof a range of 5° C.; preferably within a range of 1° C. The sheets are 5to 10 millimeters in thickness. Other thicknesses can be employed. Thesheets are sandwiched together, normally about six sheets to each matand placed in trays having a bottom surface with a die or mold for thetexture and a top plate. The top plate may also have a die or mold forthe texture for the other surface. The tray with the sandwich of layersof the raw composition and the top plate are pressed in a press andheated to a temperature to permit the elastomer to foam and expand. Thepress is required to keep the distance between the tray and the topplate constant to yield elastomeric foam mat of a predeterminedthickness. Preferably, the three like sheets have virtually identicalcompositions and blend together to form one layer of the mat. The twomat layers may have slightly different compositions because theirrespective sheets are made from different raw compositions (thedifferences can be slight) at different times (e.g., in differentbatches).

The virgin PE and the recycle PE have different rates of thermalexpansion and different rates of foaming. The raw compositions of thesheets are restricted in vertical movement and unrestricted inhorizontal movement between the tray and the top plate in the press whenheated. In the preferred embodiment, three layers of the raw compositionwill have one color and the other three layers of composition will haveanother color. Thus, one side of the mat may be red and the other sidemay be black, etc. The die in the bottom of the tray places one textureon one surface of the mat, and if the top plate has a die, it places atexture on the other surface of the mat. Preferably, the two texturesare different although they can be the same. After the foaming reactionis completed by the heating in the press, the tray and the top plate areremoved from the press and the unfinished mat is removed from the tray.The mat is allowed to cool and then it is passed to a cutting machinewherein the mat with the interlocking periphery is cut out of theunfinished mat. The mat is now complete.

In those cases where the top plate does not have a die for the texture,the mat comes out of the press with a texture only on one surface and asmooth planar other surface. The mat can be sent to a roller mill havinga cool roller and a heated roller with a die attached thereto. Theheated roller with die only heats the surface not having a texturepermitting the heated roller with die to texture the other surface ofthe mat. The textured surface is kept cool by the cool roller. The matis passed between two rollers and the roller that touches the texturesurface is cool, whereas the roller with the die to give texture to theother surface is hot. The cooling roller prevents destruction or damageto the textured surface created in the press.

The above invention is not restricted to the specific embodimentsdisclosed herein; modifications and other embodiments of the inventionare within the scope of the invention.

1. A foam mat comprising a body bounded by an interlocking peripheralwall, the body comprising: a first layer made from a first batch of rawmaterials comprising a first polymer and a second polymer; a secondlayer made from a second batch of raw materials comprising the firstpolymer and the second polymer; wherein the first layer and second layerare made by (i) separately heating and mixing the first batch of rawmaterials and the second batch at a temperature that is below a foamingtemperature of the first batch of raw materials and the second batch ofraw materials, respectively; (ii) separately heating and pressing thefirst batch of raw materials and the second batch of raw materialsthrough rollers that are maintained within uniform temperatures of arange of 5° C. to form a first plurality of sheets and a secondplurality of sheets, respectively; and (iii) stacking, pressing, andheating one or more of the first plurality of sheets and one or more ofthe second plurality of sheets to a temperature that permits the sheetsto foam and expand; and wherein, after foaming and expansion, the firstlayer comprises a first chemical composition and the second layercomprises a second chemical composition that is substantially similar tothe first chemical composition so that the first layer and second layerrespond similarly when subject to temperature changes and forces.
 2. Thefoam mat of claim 1 wherein the first polymer comprises ethylene vinylacetate (EVA) and the second polymer comprises polyethylene (PE).
 3. Thefoam mat of claim 2 wherein the EVA is recycled EVA, and the PE isvirgin PE.
 4. The foam mat of claim 2 wherein the EVA is virgin EVA, andthe PE is recycled PE.
 5. The foam mat of claim 2 wherein the EVA isvirgin EVA, and the PE is virgin PE.
 6. The foam mat of claim 1 whereinthe second batch of raw materials comprising the same amount of thefirst polymer and the second polymer as the first batch of rawmaterials.
 7. The foam mat of claim 1 wherein the first layer and thesecond layer have the same coefficient of thermal expansion and the sameelastomeric properties.
 8. The foam mat of claim 1, wherein the firstbatch of raw materials comprises a first colorant and the second batchof raw materials comprises a second colorant that is different that thefirst colorant.
 9. The foam mat of claim 1, wherein the first layercomprises a first texture and the second layer comprises a secondtexture that is different than the first texture.
 10. The foam mat ofclaim 1 wherein the interlocking peripheral wall comprises a pluralityof alternating teeth and receiving slots.
 11. A method of manufacturinga foam mat comprising a first layer and a second layer, the methodcomprising the steps of: (i) separately heating and mixing a first batchof raw materials and a second batch of raw materials at a temperaturethat is below a foaming temperature of the first batch of raw materialsand the second batch of raw materials, respectively; wherein the firstbatch of raw materials comprises a first polymer, a second polymer, anda colorant; and wherein the second batch of raw materials comprises thefirst polymer, the second polymer, and a second colorant; (ii)separately heating and pressing the first batch of raw materials and thesecond batch of raw materials through rollers that are maintained withinuniform temperatures of a range of 5° C. to form a first plurality ofsheets and a second plurality of sheets, respectively; and (iii)stacking, pressing, and heating one or more of the first plurality ofsheets and one or more of the second plurality of sheets to atemperature that permits the sheets to foam and expand; and (iv) cuttinga plurality of alternating teeth and receiving slots around a peripheralwall of the mat.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the first polymerhas a first rate of foaming and the second polymer has a second rate offoaming that is different than the first rate of foaming.
 13. The methodof claim 11 wherein the first polymer has a first rate of expansion andthe second polymer has a second rate of expansion that is different thanthe first rate of expansion.
 14. The method of claim 11 wherein the stepof stacking, pressing, and heating one or more of the first plurality ofsheets and one or more of the second plurality of sheets comprisesstacking the sheets in a press.
 15. The method of claim 14 wherein thepress comprises a top plate and a bottom tray.
 16. The method of claim15 wherein the bottom tray comprises a first die having a first texture.17. The method of claim 16 wherein the top place comprises a second diehaving a second texture that is different than the first texture. 18.The method of claim 11 wherein the step of stacking, pressing, andheating one or more of the first plurality of sheets and one or more ofthe second plurality of sheets comprises stacking three or more of thefirst plurality of sheets and three or more of the second plurality ofsheets.
 19. The method of claim 11 wherein the first plurality of sheetsand the second plurality of sheets have a uniform thickness.
 20. Themethod of claim 11 wherein the first plurality of sheets and the secondplurality of sheets have a thickness between 5 to 10 millimeters.